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Friday, May 31, 2013

I am cleaning my 60mm armies. The newest ones are recasts, but the vast majority of them are 40 to 60 years old. I have had some of them since 1958 and got many off eBay. Many are very dirty. I am using these clear plastic boxes on my patio to clean them.

After a lot of experimentation I found OxiClean seems to work best cleaning soft plastic figures.

Here are some of the troops in ZipLoc bags waiting for cleaning.

Troops go into the water along with a scoop of the OxiClean.

The troops were soaked for 12 to 24 hours, sometimes with an extra scoop of OxiClean.

I stirred the figures every few hours to make sure they were all covered with water and cleaner.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

There is a web service called Kickstarter. They help companies raise money to fund projects. You pledge a certain amount of money and if the Kickstarter funds reach the goal they are trying for, you pay the money. At some point in the future you get your stuff. There are risks. If the company is late or does not deliver you may not get all you ordered or the product might not be as nice as you expect it to be. It's a good idea for small companies to raise money for small hobby products.

Alien Dungeon is running a project called All Quiet on the Martian Front. The idea is the War of the Worlds as written by H.G. Wells happens in about 1915, and the major attack is in the United States. The US develops tanks and other weapons to defeat the Martians. The Martians operate a large number of different kinds of war machines. The project will use 18mm figures and models made in resin, white metal and injection molded plastic.

I have been working on a similar project for my US Army forces only in a slightly larger size. My intention is to have a Martian attack for 1898, 1918, 1938, and 1958. That gives me colonial era, World War One, pre-World War Two and Pentomic Army forces to fight off Martians. I don't know if I will take part in the Kickstarter. It is an interesting idea.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Playmates Battle Dice figures made over 60 figures in mostly about 1/72nd scale. This guy is Magneto. I wanted more variety and so I am doing some conversions. First I cut off the flashes from his hands.

The first thing is to strip off the paint. I tried everything and nothing worked, until I tried Goof Off.

I placed the figure in a glass jar and hosed the figure down. The paint melted off as I squirted the Goof Off on him. The paint remover was so strong, it melted the figure so I kept the use of it to a minimum.

Once the paint was off, I washed him with Simple Green to cut off the Goof Off. My plan was to make Magneto into Batman.

Once the paint was removed, I added a Bat Belt and Bat Ears for Batman. I am making the 1966 TV show Batman.